Animal Art for a Nursery Rhyme

We had all of our grandchildren on video chat (also know as video conference) this evening. Our daughter with her one-year-old, along with our oldest son's three older children - brave daughter taking care of all four for the night. Josiah, the oldest, wanted to show off the Jack-In-The-Box, and after he turned the crank with the expected but not-to-be-too-surprised ending, we three adults tried to remember the lyrics to the tune - he smiled all the time; toothless, missing his two top-front teeth. The marvel of the Internet, and the instant results it brings. A quick Google search produced found the song - we sang it with speed-of-light transmission back and forth between Maryland and Oregon. Josiah lost interest pretty fast, so I went surfing on my laptop for some illustrations to go along with nursery rhyme poetry. I knew to look for possible Beatrix Potter examples - figuring she may have an image of a weasel or possum; she did. Stumbling on the Mulberry Bush drawing by Arthur Rackham was a new one for me - I hadn't heard of him before. He was a turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th) book illustrator whose illustrations from close to a century ago fall into the lineage of fantastic art, and seem as though they could be from comic books or graphic novels today - if it weren't for the themes being from a Victorian era. The second illustration is of Mr. Weasel's Poultry Shop by Potter; and the third, The Wolf and the Crane (1) by Rackham.

The Mulberry Bush

All around the mulberry bush,

The monkey chased the weasel;

The monkey thought it 'twas a joke,

Pop goes the weasel.

Mr. Weasel's Poultry Shop

A penny for a spool of thread,

A penny for a needle—

That's the way the money goes,

Pop! goes the weasel.

 

The Wolf and the Crane

Jimmy's got the whooping cough

And Timmy's got the measles

That's the way the story goes

Pop! goes the weasel.

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(1) A wolf, when eating his dinner one day, swallowed a bone, which stuck in his throat. He went about howling, asking every animal he met to help him, and promised a large reward to anyone who could get it out. At last, a stork, who had a long, slender neck and bill, undertook the task. Poking his long bill down the wolf's throat, he got hold of the bone and pulled it out; but when he asked for his reward the wolf laughed, and said, "You may think yourself lucky that I did not bite your head off when it was in my mouth." An Aesop Fable